1787Petrovaradin
Condemned to Haul Ships, 1787, published by Johann Martin Will
Five condemned men, chained to one another and yoked in pairs to wooden buckets slung from shoulder poles, carry water up from the Danube. A guard in a heavy cloak leans on his cane at the right. Behind them a two-masted river ship rides at anchor and a second file of prisoners leans into a towline along the bank, while a walled fortress on its bluff closes the view at the left. The sheet's own caption accounts for both duties. The whole company was chained aboard two ships in Vienna on 24 April 1787 and sent to Hungary, 104 men in number, sixteen of them branded on the cheeks with the gallows and the wheel; and when the Danube froze and they could not be used to haul ships, they were chained together in fives and made to carry water from the river to the fortress of Peterwardein. The five in the foreground are that winter detail, which is the duty the caption ties to this place. Johann Martin Will published the sheet at Augsburg.
Published by Johann Martin Will
About this place
The town on the right bank of the Danube facing Novi Sad, gathered around its great fortress. A Roman fortress called Cusum stood here in the 1st century, and the medieval town is first recorded as Peturwarod (Pétervárad) in 1237. The Ottomans took it after a two-week siege in 1526, and it passed definitively to the Habsburgs in the 1690s, becoming the garrison town of Peterwardein; Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the Ottoman army beneath its walls in 1716. The Baroque lower town (Podgrađe) still stands under the fortress walls. Long administered separately from Novi Sad, Petrovaradin lost its last separate municipal status when the city statute of March 2019 merged it fully into the City of Novi Sad.
On the card
Condemnirte zum Schiff Ziehen. // Als d. 24. April 1787. die gantze gesellschaft in Wien auf zwey schiff öffentlich zusamen geschmidet worden, und nach Ungarn abgegangen, sie wahren 104. an der zahl wovon 16. Galgen u. Radt auf die Wangen ein gebrandt worden, dan solche wan die Donau zu gefroren und zum schiff ziehen nicht könen verwendt werden, zu 5. Mañ zu samen geschlosen, und daß Waser auß der Donau nach der Festung Peterwardein tragen müßen. // Joh. Mart. Will exc. A.V.
Condemned to ship-hauling. On 24 April 1787 the whole company was publicly chained together onto two ships in Vienna and sent off to Hungary. They were 104 in number, of whom 16 had been branded on the cheeks with the gallows and the wheel. Then, when the Danube froze and they could not be used for hauling ships, they were chained together in fives and had to carry water from the Danube to the fortress of Peterwardein. Published by Johann Martin Will, Augsburg.
- Date
- 1787
- Coordinates
- 45.25000, 19.86700
- Source
- The Albertina Museum
- Credit
- The Albertina Museum / Anonym, published by Johann Martin Will
- Licence
- Public domain
- Size
- 1200 × 834 px
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